Tonight the Music Seems So Loud

He wrote one of the biggest hits of our age in ‘about an hour’ in his childhood bedroom.

He would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest musicians of all time, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder.

He was a pop star who bleached his hair blonde, wore tiny shorts and, at the same time, critiqued his own image mercilessly.

He lived through the AIDS crisis and one of the most homophobic periods of British history and yet when he finally came out, he did so boldly and unapologetically.

Wham! were the first Western pop group to play in Communist China and he repeatedly broke boundaries in music too.

Ten years after his death, George Michael is still everywhere: the annual success of ‘Last Christmas’, new covers of his songs, and endless memes on social media.

Tonight the Music Seems So Loud is at once a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of Britain’s most beloved musicians and an account of a strange and turbulent period of British history. In his unconventional and enthralling book, bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera explores the connection between music and politics, exposes what secrecy does to the soul, and reveals how fame rots the sense of self. Throughout, Sanghera captures, joyfully and poignantly, one of Britain’s greatest artists in all his musical glory.

About the Author

Sathnam Sanghera was born in Wolverhampton in 1976. He is the author of several bestselling and award-winning works of fiction and non-fiction including Empireland, which won the British Book Award for Narrative Non-Fiction and was made into a documentary for Channel 4, and Marriage Material, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and was adapted for the stage in 2025.

His memoir, The Boy with the Topknot, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, won the Mind Book of the Year, and was a BBC TV film. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society and is also the author of two books for children. He lives in London.